Representative Miller Calls For DC Drive, Evening Star (Article, April 1951)
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Representative Miller Calls for D.C. Drive on Bottle Clubs, Perverts
A House District Committee member today called on the District Commissioners to close up bottle clubs and to drive homosexuals out of the city by frequent raids on their hangouts in restaurants, clubs and other establishments.
In a letter to Commissioner John Russell Young, Representative Miller, Republican, of Nebraska charged that after-hour clubs have become "cesspools and incubators for crime in the District and surrounding territory."
"They are the hangouts for underworld characters who deal in vice, dope, peddling and crime," declared Dr. Miller, a physician. "They have no place in the Nation's Capital. They have become a disgrace to the District."
The subject was discussed informally at a meeting of the House District Committee yesterday, Dr. Miller said. He said he understands there is a law now to close up after-hours clubs. He wanted to know why more of them have not been closed. Some were put out of business last year by court order.
May Offer Amendment.
Dr. Miller told a reporter he had conferred earlier with Chairman Davis of the House District subcommittee investigating crime here and is interested in that unit's legislation now under consideration for dealing with after-hours clubs. But, Dr. Miller added, he may introduce amendments to the present law to-make it impossible for bottle clubs to exist.
Aroused by the slaying Saturday in the Downtown Club here, Dr. Miller planned to make another attack on such clubs in a speech today before the Lions Club luncheon in the Mayflower Hotel.
In his capacity as a physician and author of the so-called Miller Act for medical treatment of sex perverts, the Nebraska legislator said he plans to make some sensational disclosures before the club to present conditions in Washington.
Says Record Known.
In his letter to Commissioner Young, Dr. Miller called the homosexuals and their hangout a vexing problem.
"The Police Department," he said, "has the names, addresses and places of employment of several thousand of these individuals, who at one time or another have had their name on the police blotters of the District.
"It is a well-known fact," he added, "that several restaurants, clubs, and other establishments get most of their support from these sexual perverts. It should be the duty of the Commissioners and all law enforcement agencies to [cooperate] in an effort to stamp out this type of activity, just as they should the after-hour bottle clubs. Frequent raids, with sufficient publicity, will send the homosexuals into new territory."
Regarding the District's sex law, bearing his name, which confines some of the chronic sex offenders to St. Elizabeths Hospital for treatment, Dr. Miller said it may need some amendments or interpretation.
The physician said he plans to confer with Corporation Counsel Vernon West regarding the need for more flexibility in administering the act. This may be accomplished either by amendments or perhaps, by a legal ruling, the doctor said. He expressed the opinion that the St. Elizabeths Hospital superintendent might be permitted to use his judgment in paroling, "at least temporarily those individuals he feels might be cured."
Dr. Miller said he had read a Star editorial Monday, dealing with improvement of the Miller Act, and was impressed by the comment from Dr. Winfred Overbolser, superintendent of St. Elizabeths, who believed the law should be changed. The two points recommended would give the hospital more latitude in releasing patients conditionally and authorize return to the courts of se criminals found to be beyond hope of cure.
